Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time for prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon [Table]. And a man lame from birth was being carried up, who was placed at the temple gate called “the Beautiful (Ὡραίαν, a form of ὡραῖος) Gate” every day so he could beg for money from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple courts, he asked them for money.¹ Peter looked directly at him (as did John) and said, “Look at us!” So the lame man paid attention to them, expecting to receive something from them.²

This is the first story about any apostles after Luke declared: many wonders (τέρατα, a form of τέρας) and miraculous signs (σημεῖα, a form of σημεῖον) came about by the apostles.³ I’ll use the knowledge gleaned from the translation of Exodus 4:21 and 4:8, 9 in the Septuagint to analyze this miraculous sign as “the thing itself,” and distinguish it from “the wonder, the voice of the sign…the effect it has on the one who witnesses the sign.”⁴

First, the miraculous sign (Acts 3:6-8a NET):

But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, stand up⁵ and walk!” Then Peter took hold of him by the right hand and raised him up, and at once the man’s feet and ankles were made strong [Table]. He jumped up, stood and began walking around…

Next came the first two wonders of this miraculous sign, the first two voices of the sign (Acts 3:8b-10 NET):

…and he entered the temple courts with them, walking and leaping and praising God. All the people saw him walking and praising God, and⁶ they recognized him as the man⁷ who used to sit and ask for donations at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with astonishment and amazement at what had happened to him.

So first, a man who sat outside of the temple because it seemed like a good place to meet people who might take pity on him entered the temple courts with Peter and John praising God. Then the people who saw him recognized him and were filled with astonishment and amazement at what had happened to him. This snowball is beginning to gain some mass and momentum as it rolls downhill.

The next wonder follows (Acts 3:11 NET):

While the man⁸ was hanging on to Peter and John,⁹ all the people, completely astounded, ran together to them in the covered walkway called Solomon’s Portico.

And so Peter proclaimed the Gospel to those who assembled there. I’ve already covered that in other essays¹⁰ and won’t repeat it here. The next obvious wonder or voice of the sign occurred after this Gospel proclamation (Acts 4:4 NET [Table]):

But many of those who had listened to the message believed, and the number of the men came to about 5,000.

There was another, perhaps, less obvious wonder that occurred as well (Acts 4:1-3 NET):

While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests and the commander of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them, angry because they were teaching the people and announcing in Jesus the resurrection of¹¹ the dead. So they seized them and put them in jail until the next day (for it was already evening).

I call this a wonder of the miraculous sign of healing the lame man because, first, it led to another Gospel proclamation to the leaders in Jerusalem. Again, I covered it in another essay and won’t repeat it here. Any of these leaders would have been disturbed about any positive mention of Jesus, since they had condemned Him as an enemy of the state (John 11:48-50). But the Sadducees were doubly angered by the resurrection of the dead. All three synoptic Gospels mention their unbelief.

Paul put this particular rift between Pharisees and Sadducees to good use (Acts 23:6-8 NET):

Then when Paul noticed that part of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, he shouted out¹⁴ in the council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees.¹⁵ I am on trial concerning the hope of the resurrection of the dead!” When he said¹⁶ this, an argument began between the Pharisees and the¹⁷ Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. (For the Sadducees say there is no resurrection, or¹⁸ angel, or spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.)

As they deliberated that day after the arrest of Peter and John, “What should we do with these men?” the next wonder came to light: both Sadducees and Pharisees became reluctant witnesses to the miraculous sign performed in Jesus’ name (Acts 4:16 NET [Table]):

For it is plain to all who live in Jerusalem that a notable (γνωστὸν, a form of γνωστός) miraculous sign (σημεῖον) has come about through them, and we cannot deny it.

The next wonder of this miraculous sign follows (Acts 4:21, 22 NET):

After threatening them further, they released them, for they could not find how to punish them on account of the people, because they were all praising God for what had happened [Table]. For the man, on whom this miraculous sign of healing had been performed,¹⁹ was over forty years old.

Though it may be somewhat arbitrary to say, the last wonder of this miraculous sign follows (Acts 4:23, 24a, 29-31 NET):

When they were released, Peter and John went to their fellow believers (τοὺς ἰδίους; NET note 54: “to their own [people]”) and reported everything the high priests and the elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices to God with one mind and said,²⁰

“…Lord, pay attention to their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your message with great courage, while you extend your hand to heal, and to bring about miraculous signs (σημεῖα) and wonders (τέρατα) through the name of your holy servant (ἁγίου παιδός σου) Jesus.” When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken, and they were all filled with the²¹ Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God courageously.

It’s not too difficult to extrapolate the false wonder from all of this: a healing that does not result in faith in God through the Lord Jesus Christ, or confidence in his word, both to hear and to proclaim it. This could potentially mean the entire medical industry, though it’s not likely to be the kind of false wonder that deceives the elect. Jesus said (Mark 13:22, 23 NET):

For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs (σημεῖα) and wonders (τέρατα) to deceive, if possible, the elect. Be careful!²² I have told you everything ahead of time.

There is no cause to be puffed up by the term the elect (τοὺς ἐκλεκτούς). It is simply a phrase to distinguish those who have been drawn to Christ currently from those who are yet to be drawn: For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to me, and every tongue will give praise to God.”²³

In most other fields of science when someone comes up with a clever idea, it will take time, weeks to centuries, for someone else to come up with a clever test to falsify that hypothesis. That’s why it makes more sense to pay attention to the history of any given field of science rather than the latest and greatest. When I was young, I thought medicine with its life and death feedback would be the best of the sciences.

Be that as it may, at any prayer meeting one might attend, those who have fallen ill and into the hands of doctors or surgeons, are a major portion of the prayers offered to God. These signs (σημεῖα) will accompany those who believe, Jesus promised: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new languages; they will pick up snakes with their hands,²⁴ and whatever poison they drink will not harm²⁵ them; they will place their hands on the sick and they will be well.²⁶

The Greek words translated whatever poison here were θανάσιμον τι (literally: “anything deadly”). So, I assume it would include the harmful side effects of medications, medical treatments or procedures, especially since the negation here is οὐ μὴ and the verb negated is βλάψῃ²⁷ in the aorist tense and subjunctive mood. That makes this a subjunctive of emphatic negation:²⁸

Thus, when you have οὐ µή (ou mē) in combination with the Aorist Subjunctive, what occurs is the absolute and unequivocal denial of the probability of an event EVER OCCURING at any moment or time in the future.

With that level of uncontrollable confounding medical science may be one of the worst of the sciences. Personally, I wouldn’t want to be next in line to take any medication, medical treatment or procedure after one bathed in the prayer of the elect and promised health and protection, if I were trusting in that medication, medical treatment, procedure, doctor, surgeon or medical science instead of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I’ll continue with this in another essay.

According to a note (8) in the NET Paul quoted from Isaiah 45:23. A table comparing the Greek of Romans 14:11 with that of Isaiah 45:23 in the Septuagint follows.

The phrase ζῶ ἐγώ λέγει κύριος (NET: As I live, says the Lord) is fairly common in the Septuagint. It’s found in Numbers 14:28; Isaiah 49:18; Jeremiah 22:24; Jeremiah 46:18; Ezekiel 5:11; Ezekiel 14:16; Ezekiel 14:18; Ezekiel 14:20; Ezekiel 16:48; Ezekiel 17:16; Ezekiel 18:3; Ezekiel 20:31; Ezekiel 20:33; Ezekiel 34:8; Ezekiel 35:6; Ezekiel 35:11 and Zephaniah 2:9. In Romans 14:11 as it relates to Isaiah 45:23a, however, it seems to be Paul’s paraphrase of another oath:

Tables comparing Isaiah 45:23 in the Tanakh, KJV and NET; and comparing Isaiah 45:23 in the BLB and Elpenor versions of the Septuagint with the English translations from Hebrew and Greek, and tables comparing the Greek of Acts 3:3; 3:6; 3:10; 3:11; 4:2; Matthew 22:23; Mark 12:18; Acts 23:6-8; 4:22; 4:24; 4:31; Mark 13:23 and 16:18 in the NET and KJV follow.